We are back to Auteuil this Thursday for an 8-race card and there are a very promising set of 3-year-olds on show. The headlines will be made by the pair of Grade 3 Hurdles, the Prix Robert Lejeune and the Prix de Chambly. I’ll start with Nietzsche Has, who makes his autumnal return for the Rolland team in the Prix Robert Lejeune. He dominated the 3-year-old division in the Spring and all of his form ties in with the leading 3-year-olds that have been sold to the UK and Ireland over the summer. With an official rating of 74-kilos (148), he should walk this race on paper, but there is no doubt that the G1 Prix Cambaceres in November is the ultimate aim for him and I can’t get out of my head the fact that Jigme, who had an almost identical profile coming into this race 12-months ago, got turned over and shaped like he needed the run. As an entire, with a stallion career ahead of him, this is likely to be a prep run for the big day in 8-weeks’ time and so even though he looks to hold his rivals, he can’t be a bet at such a short price. Djin’s and Raffles Dolce Vita both have solid Auteuil form on their CVs and should be competitive at this level, but it can only be a watching brief at this stage because of the fact that the favourite looked so far ahead of the rest in the Spring.
It will be a similar story with the Prix de Chambly at 2:22 where the unbeaten Olympic Story will make her 3rd start for Francois Nicolle. She looked very exciting in the Spring and her win in the Listed Prix Girofla in April was one of the best 3-year-old races of the season. She reopposes both Shika du Berlais and Sobriquette here (the placed horses from the Prix Girofla) and at the weights, she should at least uphold the form with Shika du Berlais as she receives 2-kilos. Francois Nicolle has several promising 3-year-old fillies from the Spring season, and it will be fascinating to see how and where he places them over the coming weeks. At this stage, I would have Olympic Story slightly ahead of L’Heritiere and Lacokokeldy and I would expect her to win this if she is ready to go, but at a short price she makes no appeal and there is a potential fly in the ointment in the shape of Chloe du Berlais. She won on her only start for Rob Collet in the Prix Bois Rouad back in June and that form looks particularly strong as the 3rd placed Murcia won the Listed Prix D’Iena just a week later before she was sold to join Willie Mullins.
As you can see both of these 3-year-old races will be worth watching as they are likely to provide some clues for the Juvenile form lines on both sides of the Channel. However, there is also a very good renewal of the Prix Finot (Pouliches) on the card. This is the Fillies version of the races held last week for the colts and geldings and with 13 well-bred debutantes going to post in division 1, this could also prove to be an informative race. It would be impossible to try and speculate which horses may win the race, but we have close relatives of Instit (La Messe est Dite), Ladyville (Lady Legend) and Quai de Bourbon (Place de la Nation) and that makes it worthy of note. The second division would look to be equally competitive and this features close relatives of Gorvello (Maskida), Whisper (Femme Bleue) and Tidara Angel (Celestial Sea).
Away from the 3-year-olds I must admit to finding it quite a struggle when looking for a bet on this card, but at the early prices on offer I did think that Kuartz was slightly overpriced at 13/2 in the opening race at 10:15. He was a winner here back in May and is at least weighted to uphold the form with Winstonpresident. Whilst both Prestige D’Olva and Kilt Ecossais have more recent winning form, they are both taking a significant rise in class, and I’d be much more concerned by Bon Garcon. He comes from the red-hot Arnaud Chaille-Chaille team, but although his hurdle form stands out, he will need to prove that he can translate that form over the larger obstacles, and he finished the Spring season with a relatively tame effort over hurdles at the start of May. Kuartz remains unexposed after just 4 starts and his experience around the chase course makes him look like a value bet at his current price.
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